


everything's going to be okay

by Edens_Spilled_Ink



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: 1963, But who isn't in that family lmao, Dave and Klaus needed more screen time, First Meetings, God I love Klaus, Here have some characterization for Dave, I mean, I watched the series in one night so I'm kinda fuzzy on the details and the order of events, If people like it I might make it a series, M/M, No I don't care about the comics, S01E05, Traumatized Klaus, Vietnam War, great now I can go to bed, hands down best character fight me, idk - Freeform, my writing voice is kinda hood but I'm too tired to translate it into normal people talk, so I tried my best, so i wrote a fic, these tags are whack imma have to fix 'em later, what actually happened in Vietnam anyway?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-20
Updated: 2019-02-20
Packaged: 2019-11-01 05:45:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17861465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Edens_Spilled_Ink/pseuds/Edens_Spilled_Ink
Summary: Klaus, still going through withdrawals, has just arrived in 1963 - and already he's resolved to leave as soon as possible. Then he meets Dave, who thinks he's smart and funny and totally not schizophrenic. When neither of them can sleep, they talk, and Klaus may have accidentally fell in love.





	everything's going to be okay

Klaus was just like his father: he’d never loved someone more than he loved himself. A lifetime of abuse and constant attention from adoring but obsessive fans will do that to you, though - in fact, he and Vanya were in the same boat when you got right down to it. She had always been outcast-ed, obviously, but after Klaus developed his child-star esque drug habit? The rest of his family saw him as just another junkie, robbing a convenience store somewhere downtown. A criminal. Trash.

And his powers weren’t exactly flashy, either. I mean, seeing the dead? ‘Sure guys, I’ll just talk to this super-villain's dead grandmother who speaks nothing but Ukrainian a save the day with my super cool power!’ Yeah, right. No - the only useful power he had was sleight of hand, and that was developed slowly through painful years of being caught.

That was how he got the briefcase. Shortly after, when he disappeared off the 151 on route to the pawn shop, he found himself on another bus to some rural Vietnam village in 1963 - and made a promise to himself and to god to never to steal anything ever again.

A whisper. “What are you thinking about?”

Oh shit. It was Dave. Like, hot Dave, from the bus to the random compound just outside the village, a tent with hard mattresses placed exactly two feet apart in rows upon rows with military-grade precision, bodies upon bodies lying symmetrically, as still as the rows of dead soldiers laying on the ground outside.  _ Quick, say something witty _ .

“What do you care?”  _ Idiot _ . He’d let the withdrawals talk for him again - god, if Ben were here now. Fortunately, he wasn’t technically dead yet. Or alive. What a strange thought.

Klaus shifted in his bed, skin stuck to the sheets with sweat and the air too thick and too thin to breathe all at once _. I haven’t used in 52 hours _ .  _ Kill me now _ .

“I can’t sleep either,” Dave rolled closer to the edge of his cot, closer to Klaus so they could hear each other without waking up the whole platoon. “Now,” He paused, and didn’t continue until Klaus spared him a look in the darkness of the barracks, “I’m bored, and we’re all going to die,” Klaus laughed loud enough that a few of the other soldiers woke with a snort and rolled over grumpily. “So, what are you thinking about?”

“My family.”  _ That’ll shut ‘im up _ .

“You miss ‘em?” Dave asked sympathetically, leaning closer.

Klaus was so offended at that notion that he snorted. “You’re a real funny guy. No, they suck. Like, majorly.”

“They suck? What do they suck?”

“Dick.”

Dave gasped softly, and Klaus remembered he was in 1963. “No!” He tried, but found the whole situation so ridiculous he had to speak in between fits of manic laughter. I mean, one minute he’s on his way to the pawn shop - and now this? Maybe it was the withdrawal, or the kid with half his head blown off gurgling at him from the corner. “It’s a phrase, like - you know when something or somebody is just the worst? That’s what it means.”

Dave chuckled, and laid back down on his back to stare at the ceiling.  _ Where was his blanket? _   “My dad sucks,” Dave whispered into empty air.

Klaus grinned, “Yeah, mine too.”

“Do you find everything funny?”

“Not particularly.” That was a big word, especially for him.  _ Weird _ . God, he had to get his hands on some booze or something. When was the prohibition again? Shit, he should have payed more attention when the tutor came over - what war was this even? “Hey, what war are we in again?”

Dave blinked a few times. “How can you now know that? You’re fighting in it. You were drafted.”

“Sorry, I just got here,” he said vaguely. “Oh shit, are we in Korea?”

Dave laughed. “Vietnam - get your shit together.”

“Wow, thanks Dave. I’ll add you to the list of people who are disappointed in me,” Klaus giggled, soaked sheets and cotton-headache long forgotten.

“You remembered my name?” Dave looked over at him.

“Well, yeah,” Klaus racked his mind, worried he’d said something to freak Dave out, but he found nothing. “You told me your name on the bus, remember? I’m Klaus.”

“Yeah, I know-” Dave stared at him thoughtfully, then rolled his bed back into his pillow, exhausted. “You’re real smart.”

Klaus laughed bitterly at that lie. “I didn’t even know what war we’re in.”

“Klaus, I told you my name 16 hours ago, and you’re in the middle of detoxing - plus it looks like you’re seeing shit, something in that corner. Maybe hearing it too,” Klaus looked at him in horror, and he gestured weakly to the corner. “You’re real smart, you’ve just got a lot on your mind,” Dave said, and Klaus knew he could never forget the words, so he imprinted them into his memory. They meant too much to let go. “You’re not stupid, you’re just too quick, if that makes sense.”

Klaus smiled. “Thanks. You’re wrong, but thanks.”

Dave chuckled, and they fell into an easy silence for a while.

“How did you know I was seeing things?” Klaus whispered, almost frightened. Did this dude know about the academy?

“My mum used to see things, after Grammy died,” Dave’s voice was tight to his chest. “She insisted Grammy was still alive and living in the house for, like, five years.

“Five years? What changed?”

“She died,” he said, and Klaus went quiet. It was Dave that changed the subject. “So, what about you? How’d you end up joining a war you didn’t know about?”

Klaus was so taken aback that he laughed. I mean, what was he gonna tell this guy? ‘Oh yeah, I just time traveled here from 2019 where I can legally suck a man’s dick, then marry him. Also, we had a woman in a pantsuit running for President of the United States, and there’s this thing called Twitter-’

“You gonna answer me?” Dave chuckled impatiently.

“You literally wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Try me,” Dave tried, but a wave of uninvited pain took him over and he got lost in his headache and the thousand-needle pain in his stomach. Suddenly, he was shaking again, horribly nauseous, and way too hot. They laid in silence for so long Klaus figured Dave had fallen asleep, but after a while he let out this full body sputtering cough, and spat something red on the ground beside them. “God, it’s freezing in here.”

_ Oh yeah, his blanket _ .  _ It’s gone.  _ “What happened to your blanket?”

“They blew Jimmy’s head off yesterday, so I covered ‘im with it,” Dave replied offhandedly. “It’s fine, I’ll live. We get new supplies tomorrow.”

Klaus gagged, and resolved to figure out the briefcase under his case and get back to the academy as soon as possible. He looked at the gurgling kid in the corner, and knew it must be Jimmy - but it was different to watch someone die. Lose everything, only to be spat out again on the other side. He saw it with Ben. “Please tell me I’m not going to see that for myself,”  _ not again _ , he added in his head - but he already knew he would. 

“Only if you tell me everything’s going to be okay,” Dave half-joked.

“Everything’s going to be okay,” Klaus recited because it felt right to say it, heard the need in Dave’s voice behind the sarcasm.

After that, Dave went real quiet, and Klaus held his breath in fear he’d said the wrong thing. “One more time?” He said after a while in an unstable voice.

Klaus shifted again, heart sinking in his chest. “Everything’s going to be okay, Dave.”

Dave laughed, and all the tension in Klaus’ body fell through to the floor, like his soul jumped right through his body - and he knew then that Dave was special. Perfect. “Everything’s going to be okay. Do you know what that means?”

Klaus looked over at him. “What?”

“It means we’re not going to have to watch anyone else die,” Dave chuckled, and the false hope of that sentence hit Klaus right in the chest like a bullet. “You’re not going to have to watch anyone else die, Klaus.”

“Promise?” Klaus whispered back.

“Sure.”

Klaus sunk deeper into his already soaked mattress and balled up his blanket, tossing it to Dave with the ease of a practiced superhero without a second thought. Or soldier, same difference. Neither of them said a word for the rest of the night, Klaus fighting through his withdrawals as Dave laid just two feet away, supporting him silently, their eyes wide open.

They raided the village, and Klaus watched a boy who looked just like Five get his head blown off with a shotgun the very next day. Dave put a blanket over him too, and they collected new ones that night. Good thing they had one extra.

**Author's Note:**

> Like this work? Leave a comment! Who knows, maybe I'll make it a series.


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